Echo of Fear
by NeoMoon
Summary: Fear embraces one of the Senshi, and she is thrust into a darkness only she can overcome


Sailor Moon  
"Echo of Fear"  
By: NeoMoon  
  
"In darkness fear breads waiting. I am the mother, the father,   
the alpha and the omega. I am death and rebirth, and in the end   
I shall look over the nine rings of hell and laugh for I will have   
conquered all."  
  
The woman looked down over the tall skyscraper, laughing madly.  
  
"All will parish, little one none shall remain. All will die as   
they face their fear."  
  
The woman spread her arms, the blue sheet that had been wrapped   
around her dropped from her form, and with a final smile she   
dropped of the ledge and into a two hundred story free fall.  
  
"And in the end none will survive the fear that they face, for I   
am fear."  
  
Rei awoke gasping for air, a cold sweet covering her body.  
  
"What was that?" She whispered as she walked over to her window.  
  
It was a beautiful night, and the breeze that came though the window   
caressed her face, feeling her with a false sense of peace.  
  
"I am fear, I am death."  
  
Rei turned, fear evident on her face, no one was there.  
  
"Face your fear."  
  
She knew she was awake, she knew this was no dream. She grabbed her   
head trying to block the voice out. It was specking to her, its voice   
getting louder, the throbbing in her head increasing. She fell to her   
knees, gasping for air, tears running down her face from the pain.   
  
"Face your fear!"  
  
She was standing alone, in darkness, she was walking, she could hear her   
own footsteps echoing through the vast darkness. There was a slight   
breeze, it's chill ran up her spine as she saw the temple were she had   
been raised since before she could remember. She could hear the baby   
crying from by the bell. She ran over to it, and turned as she heard   
someone coming from behind her. She turned, seeing her grandfather.  
  
"Poor child." He said, bending down straight through Rei. "You where   
left here weren't you?"  
  
He picked up the small child, cradling it in his arms. "I'm sorry, you've   
been abandoned, little one." He smiled at the small baby. "Rei, I'll call   
you Rei."  
  
"Your fear will kill you."  
  
She wakes with a start, the sweet that was once dried by the wind now once   
more cover her body coldly. She breathed in deeply wincing at the pain the   
breathing causes in her head. She picks herself up from the floor, and   
still in her underclothing walks out into the night. To the shine of the   
Fire Spirits, her guides in her life.  
  
She had always wondered what had happened to her parents, and every time   
she would ask her Grandfather he would change the subject, and talk of the   
most recent beautiful girl to come to the temple. And as she thought of   
her dreams the fires burned before her, there heat caressing and warming   
her body, she loved the fires there beauty and there grace. But today   
they would not speck to her, her mind was not clear; it was clouded with   
the questions the dreams had brought to her.  
  
She rose off her knees slowly, turning solemnly walking from the shrine   
back to the small house behind the main temple, school would be starting   
soon, and possible that distraction would put in end to her questions.  
  
It was a cool day, late fall, the trees where changing there various colors,   
and she enjoyed it. The soft sounds coming from her walk man, the people   
walking by her, she was happy to be here, to not be haunted anymore.  
  
"Fear will always haunt you."  
  
She stopped, turning looking around the street. It was bare no more people,   
no more cars, everything was all gone.   
  
"I am the mother, the father. I am the alpha and the omega. I am all that   
matters. I am fear."  
  
She stopped her Walkman, and looked up at the sky seeing a sunset taking place   
at an ungodly speed, seeing the moon race by and the sunrise once more to where   
it had been. She looked up in amazement, this couldn't be real, this couldn't be . . .  
  
"Excuse me miss?"  
  
She looked down from the sky seeing the streets full of people once more, she   
looked at the man standing beside her.  
  
"Excuse me, are you alright miss?" He asked again.  
  
Rei just stared at the man again, thinking for a second, her mind still trying   
to comprehend what she had just seen.  
  
"Oh, yeah um, I'm fine." She said after awhile. "Sorry."  
  
There was no way she was going to school. After what she had just seen, just felt.   
No she wouldn't go to school, she turned, the man still looking at her and headed   
back for the temple, to her fires hoping they would answer her summons and answer   
her questions.  
  
"I am fear, I am anguish, I am all that has ever been and all that will ever be.   
Face your fears little one."  
  
The woman stood in the street watching the cars zoom by her, smiling faintly as   
they passed her beeping there horns madly.  
  
"Fear breeds in darkness, waiting. I am the mother, the father. I am the alpha   
and the omega. I am death and rebirth. I am all that has ever been and all that   
ever will be."  
  
The woman steps forward ignoring the cars swerving to miss her, ignoring the   
semi-truck that will not swerve out of her way.  
  
"Face your fear."  
  
The woman smiles faintly, and spreads her arms invitingly as the truck continues   
toward her.  
  
"In the end fear will kill you."  
  
The driver slams on his brakes, far too late, but he tries, and fails."  
  
"I am death."  
  
Her eyes fly open, the grace of the fire danced before her. She breathed heavily,   
the gruesome picture that she had just been soon played over again and again. She   
felt her body sway with sickness, pity, and loathing.  
  
"I am that which you fear."   
  
Rei walked again through dark mist, her footfalls echoing through the darkness.  
  
"You fear abandonment."  
  
Rei walked alone. Her friends where not here, nor her grandfather, no one, she was   
alone. She so hated to be alone.  
  
"You fear yourself."  
  
She can hear something in her mind. Voices millions of them, al of them in pain.   
Her head throbbed; she felt their pain, their anguish. She could feel their sins,   
their lust, everything that is sin, that is pain flooded into her mind as water would   
through a busted floodgate.   
  
She screamed in agony, the pain overcoming her. Then as soon as it started it stopped.  
  
"Face your fear."  
  
Rei rose to her feet continuing to walk through the darkness, echoes of voices haunting   
her from the deepest parts of her mind. She could feel the cold chill this place gave   
run through her, she was alone, cold, and scared.  
  
It happened, as if someone turned a light in a blackened room on, she was home, kneeling   
before the fires, they where low, not feed for hours.  
  
She rose to her feet, and left the shrine and entered into night. She looked at the sky   
in amazement, when she had entered it had been day.   
  
"What's happening to me?" She whispered to her self as she wiped the sweat off her   
forehead.  
  
"Fear breeds in darkness, in waiting."  
  
A man looks over the dock at the black waters of the Tokyo Bay, the lights of the city   
reflect softly off of its surface. He smiles at its beauty.  
  
"Waiting for those who believe they can defeat it, gathering its strength."  
  
The man begins to unbutton his shirt, and lets the wind carry it away as he leaves   
it go.  
  
"Fear is strong."  
  
The man dives into the bay.  
  
"Fear will not be beaten."  
  
He never emerges.   
  
"Nothing shall survive, and in the end I shall stand atop the nine rings of hell   
and laugh. For I will have conquered all."  
  
She lies in her bed, eyes opened out of fear. Fear of what shall come when she   
closes her eyes, the terrorable images that will play themselves to her. This   
was her gift in a way, the doors in her mind were open, but what ever walked   
freely through those doors was scaring her, and now even as she lay awake in   
her bed a soft breeze entering her room the voice comes to her with more pictures.   
She can feel the tears coming, but none emerge from her eyes, she has none   
left too shed.  
  
"I am life, I am death, I am the alpha and the omega, I am the father and the mother."  
  
She kneels in front of the fire, ignoring the pain the words bring with them,   
ignoring the horrors they bring with them. There is nothing but her the fire   
and the voice.  
  
"Fear is all, fear is strength, know your fear."  
  
The small girl looks down happily at the tigers roaming their pen. She smiles   
waving at them, giggling at the things they do.  
  
"I have been since the beginning."  
  
She grabs a hold of the bars lifting herself up onto them.  
  
"I live in the hearts of all that exist."  
  
She looks down smiling at the tigers that look up at her.  
  
"In the end I shall laugh, for I shall have conquered all."  
  
The girl laughs, and her mother turns to watch her daughter far to late.   
  
Rei screams unable to ignore any longer. She jumps to her feet the cold   
sweet that covers her body, mating her robes to her frame. She breathes   
heavily, clutching her chest. The pain she feels in those images is too   
much for her to stand.  
  
She can hear laughter in the wind as she runs to the small house behind   
the temple. She stops, a chill running up her spine, and turns to see the   
small girl behind her.  
  
She is pale, her eyes wide and deep black, like wells of ink. She lifts her   
hand to Rei, moving her mouth but only bitter silence emerges from her pale   
pink lips. For the briefest moment Rei thinks of a porcelain doll before the   
girl vanishes before her eyes.  
  
Rei gasps as the girl vanishes slowly, unable to keep herself from being scared   
by the site. She there for a long while, the cold fall wind blowing fiercely in   
her face, chapping her lips and burning her face with its cold.  
  
"I am eternal."  
  
"Help me." Rei whispered. "She wants me to help her."  
  
"In life and in death I am present. I have been since the beginning, and shall   
be past the end."  
  
She lays herself slowly down onto her bed, laying her head down last onto the soft   
been pillow. She turns looking over at the wards covering her room, and the incense   
burning smoothly next to her. She gave a wary smile, a sign to herself of victory,   
and closed her eyes.  
  
They where heavy, her eyelids, she did so want to sleep, but her mind screamed to her   
to stay awake, but in the end, Mab, Queen of dreams made her visit and Rei fell into   
darkness.  
  
"In the end, I shall look over the nine rings of hell and laugh for I shall have   
conquered all."  
  
She turned at these words, hoping to find her tormentor, and murder of the innocent,   
but was greeted once more by the endless dark void.   
  
She sighed heavily and continued to walk the void, her only companion the sound of   
her own footfalls echoing throughout the void.  
  
"You fear abandonment."  
  
She ignored the words and continued to walk, seeing something, someone coming toward her.  
  
"Serena?"  
  
"Get away from me!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You're a freak, get away!"  
  
Rei extended her hands to her friend. "Serena, what's . . ."  
  
"Don't touch me you freak. Get away, I hate you, your nothing but a freak of   
nature. I hate you!"  
  
Rei could feel the tears burning her eyes. "Serena . . ."  
  
"I never want to see you again!"  
  
She ran as far as she could, trying to escape the echo of her friend's harsh   
words, tears burning her eyes.  
  
"God, look at you."  
  
"Ami?"  
  
"Your so pathetic."  
  
"No, Ami please don't say that."  
  
"Why not? It is the truth."  
  
"Ami."  
  
"I'm sorry, but I can't be your friend, I despise you."  
  
She fell to her knees, dropping her head to the ground, tears moving freely down   
her face, burning her eyes.  
  
"Get up!"  
  
"Oh God no." She said rising to her feet, turning to look at the girl who stood there.  
  
"You're weak!"  
  
"Lita, please."  
  
"I ca not be associated with weakness."  
  
"Lita, please!"  
  
"Get out of my face!"  
  
"No."  
  
She ran again, her legs crying out in pain, and finally she fell once more, she   
looked up at the one walking toward her, not bothering to stop, passing her.  
  
"I am love, but there is no love in my heart for you."  
  
Rei turned to see a glimpse of blonde hair before the figure faded into darkness.  
  
"Look at yourself." Said another cloaked in darkness, a rose in his hand. "I can   
not believe I wasted so much time on a creature such as you."  
  
Then all was gone, she was alone in cold darkness, broken, defeated.  
  
"You have faced your fear."  
  
She looked up into the darkness.  
  
"You alone, no one has a care for you. You have no one."  
  
"No!" She screamed, her voice cracking. "I have friends, and family!"  
  
She stood up defiantly, staring into the darkness. "They love me, I exist because of   
them! I am not alone!"  
  
She cold feel warmth inside of her growing, consuming her. It was as if her whole body  
was on fire, but it felt good to her, and she embraced it.  
  
She opened her eyes, a cloaked man stood in front of her, applauding her.  
  
"You have faced your fear, and have overcome it, yet you will die."  
  
Four shades appeared before her; slowly they cleared into the images of the two   
women, the man and the young girl. Their faces were of the palest white, there   
eyes deep wells of black ink.  
  
"I am sorry she whispered, we where all victim's." She whispered, closing her eyes   
letting her inner fire escape from her. They where gone when she once again opened   
her eyes.  
  
"You have know power over me demon!" She screamed at the cloaked creature.  
  
"I am fear! I have power over all!"  
  
"No, not me."  
  
The cloaked figure screamed in anger rushing toward her, bony arm outstretched,   
waiting to grab her, to kill her.   
  
She did not flinch, did not move, and as the cloaked creature was about to grab her,   
there came the sound of creaking. They both looked up, seeing light creak the darkness.   
The cloaked figure looked at her and screamed in agony as his body was overcome by   
light that came from within.  
  
"Bravery is not the absents of fear, but the knowledge that fear can not hurt you."  
  
She breathed in the night air, and looked up at the star soaked sky. Her friends   
surrounded her, and she smiled as they goofed around. She smiled at the love   
they all carried for each other, and the lengths they would all go through out   
of that love.  
  
"I love you guys." She said to them, keeping her eyes fixed to the night sky.   
"You know that, right? I don't know what I would do with out any of you." She   
could feel a tear running down her face, for the first time in weeks she was not   
crying out of fear, but out of love.  
  
The End  
  
Wow, I got into that a lot! I think I added far to much personal emotion in there,   
especially the part were all her friends are basically saying they hate her. Not   
to mention I think I used a fear everyone can relate to in someway. I know it has   
some dark themes to it, and I'm almost certain, the end battle type scene wasn't   
the best, but fighting isn't my thing, I start writing a fight it looks like something   
you'd find in the sports page about a boxing match. Anyway I really hope all of you   
have enjoyed this story, or were in someway really like weirded out by this thing.   
So please, please, please, please tell me what you think, I can be reached at   
neomoon@yahoo.com and neomoon@seacove.net   
Well as always: peace, love and happiness in all you do.  
  
NeoMoon '00  



End file.
